Mai's Nightmare: The Black Rose Petals
by Amy-Anne
Summary: After Zuko leaves her on the Day of Black Sun, Mai begins having strange nightmares. The girl who had always been the one to watch a loved one suffer without providing support is about to experience such trauma without any comfort to be found...


I was strolling around the village on a dreadfully sunny day. Nothing else to do, no where else to be. As usual. I yawned and blinked at a fat man complaining about the price of komodo chicken, and across the street a pregnant woman holding a wailing baby, a toddler clutching her leg and screaming about fire flakes. I sighed as I turned a corner and suddenly the ground disappeared from beneath me. I was falling into pitch darkness. I swung out my arm and it scrapped against a wall, which I quickly stabbed a knife into. It stuck, and I dangled there, holding onto the knife handle with all my strength. I glanced down tentatively to see a blue blaze springing up beneath me – a hissing, twirling, spitting blue fire. It grew, coming closer and closer to where I dangled. The room was becoming horribly hot, sweat trickled down my face. I realized with horror that my sweaty hand was beginning to slip from its grip on the knife handle. I was slowly slipping into the growing and angry blue fire, which I could now feel brushing up against my legs. Finally my last finger slid off the knife handle and I fell again, wild blue flames surrounding me. I gasped and closed my eyes.

When I opened them, the blue fire was gone, utter darkness engulfing me once again. I couldn't see a thing.

"Hello?" I whispered hoarsely. Nothing. Silence. Then I heard a low growl. My breath was shaking as I shot a knife in the direction of the growl. It stopped. Silence. As I tried to calm myself down, sharp hissing rang out from behind me. I quickly tossed a knife there, too, and the hissing stopped. Then there was a loud BANG which shook the floor to my left, the sound of glass shattering in another direction, and a powerful roar behind me. I shot knives all around me, one after the other, not stopping until all of the dreadful noises were gone. Silence. I sat there for a long time in the dark silence, just listening to the sound of my deep breathing and clutching my knees. I noticed a small object lying next to me, I felt around for it and picked it up. I couldn't see what it was in the darkness, but fingering the smooth surface, realized it was a seashell. Why such a perfect seashell would be lying all by itself in this dark trap I couldn't even imagine. My head jerked up as I heard slow footsteps creaking as they crossed the floor. I couldn't see what it was, but it was coming closer, closer, and I had no more knives to throw. A faint light bobbled nearer to me as the footsteps grew louder.

"Who's there?" I shouted. Soon the person was walking right in front of me; a handsome young man, his hair pulled up neatly, his clothes shiny and clean. As he neared I noticed the red scar lining one side of his face.

"Zuko?" He strolled right by me, eating a fruit tart. Three servants followed him, the first holding a golden tray stacked high with fruit tarts in one hand, and a lit torch in the other. The other two servants carried a palanquin. A family of turtle ducks waddled after them, softly quacking. He left behind him a trail of rose petals.

"Zuko!" I got up and ran after him, "Zuko, do you have any idea where we are?" He continued walking, didn't even turn to look at me. I grabbed his arm and he finally turned around, surprised.

"Oh, hi Mai." He took another bite of his fruit tart, "Were you saying something?"

"I was just wondering what's going on here, you know, with the crazy blue fire and the strange sounds and the awful heat and the darkness…" He just stood there, smiling, and he blinked a couple of times.

"What?" He shook his head and sighed, as if trying to brush off my words. I tried to ignore him and continued with my story.

"And I found this." I placed the seashell in his palm. He studied it in the light of his servant's torch, his face crumpling up in rage. "Agh!" He wailed, smashing the beautiful seashell against the ground. "How stupid do you think I am, Mai? Why the hell would you give me _that?!" _He shuddered in disgust and gestured to the servant behind him, "Anyway, would you like a fruit tart?" He took a big bite of his own and continued walking.

"But Zuko!" I touched his shoulder, and he turned to face me again, rolling his eyes.

"Stop worrying." He leaned over and kissed me quickly. "There, that should make it all better."

"No, it doesn't. Don't you care at all about what's going on here?" I asked him.

His face became serious. "Well, I know one thing I care about. I care about _you_." Then he picked me up and threw me into the palanquin.

"Maybe a nice palanquin ride will cheer you up."

The palanquin began jerking, rocking, twisting and turning violently. I grasped onto the soft fabric and tried to hang on. But the ride was getting bumpier and bumpier, and I rolled over, my body becoming impossibly tangled in the sheets. I couldn't move, couldn't see, the sheets were knotting around my face and I couldn't breathe…

Then suddenly, the palanquin sharply flipped over and I tumbled out, and found myself sprawled across the floor of what looked like a stage. A loud cheer startled me and I sat up, realizing that I was in front of a large crowd. Zuko walked around me towards the crowd.

"Oh good, a show! Finally—some excitement!" He jogged across the stage, tossing rose petals into the crowd like confetti. Suddenly the roaring crowd hushed. I looked up from where I knelt on the floor to see Azula, angry, glaring at me with her fiery eyes.

"You have betrayed the fire nation, you are a traitor and an enemy. I am going to cure the world of this wretched fool." She swung her arms and formed lightning. My eyes widened, but Ty Lee jumped in front of me.

"Wait Azula! This isn't a very elegant way to do it. _I _ have a _much_ better way." And she turned around and hugged me. The crowd laughed.

"I love you Mai, you are a great friend. Even though you have never said anything nice to me, I know that there are nice things in your heart. And you _are_ pretty, Mai, your hair, even though it's depressingly black, is very silky and shiny. And I think that you are very talented with knives, and—"

I roughly pushed her away, and looked down to find myself completely covered in pink, with frilly lace and sparkles. I touched my hair, which was now tied up in a big, pink bow. The crowd roared with laughter, "Oooh, Mai, you are sooooo cute! Your aura has never been pppppinker!" I scanned the crowd in panic. I found Zuko leaning against the wall, the only member of the crowd who looked unhappy. His arms were folded tightly across his chest and he glared at me.

"Ugh, pink is _such _an ugly color. Seriously, it looks like something threw up all over her. It's so colorful it's making me nauseous." he groaned. My eyes filled up with tears of humiliation as the crowd all got up and ran away. I turned around to find that the open stage had disappeared and tall slopes loomed over me in every direction. Suddenly big boulders began rolling down towards me from all directions, and as they grew closer, the ground beneath me began to shake. I spun around and bumped into Zuko, now holding the whole tray of fruit tarts. He opened his mouth to offer me one, but I interrupted him.

"Zuko, we have to get out of here, those rocks—"

"Why are you getting so upset about this? You know what happened the _last_ time…"

The boulders groaned and rumbled as they neared.

"But these are huge boulders that are about to crush us flat, and we're surrounded, there's no way out, what are we going—"

Zuko sighed and inspected a fruit tart, "For God sakes Mai, I just asked if you wanted a fruit tart, I didn't ask you to recite a soap opera."

"_What_ are you _talking_ about?!" I screamed as the ground began to shake fiercely. I struggled to keep my footing.

"Zuko! Help!" I cried.

"Haven't I already told you to stop worrying? Sweetcakes, do I have to kiss you again?" he asked. The shaking ground knocked me off of my feet. I looked up at Zuko and the boulders rumbling all around us, tears streaming down my cheeks,

"That doesn't help _anything_! We are in serious trouble, and you think you can just kiss it all better?! Or what—stuff me with _fruit tarts!? Why_ won't you help me! Zuko, I'm so confused and I need you help! Please!" I grabbed his arm and begged for him to do something to save me from this trauma. I couldn't even stand up straight with everything around me falling apart. How could he just stand there and watch me suffer? How could he so cruel and heartless?

"Hm, you sound like you're hungry for a whole _tray_ of fruit tarts. My servant must be around here somewhere to refill this tray…"

"What is _wrong _with you?!"

He looked hurt. "Geez, Mai, I'm sorry I can't be all high strung and crazy like the rest of you…"

I screamed again and covered myself as all of the boulders raced towards me. When I opened my eyes I was in silence and darkness once again. A large ball of fire swirled through the air, revealing a huge red dragon swooping to a stop behind Zuko, who still stood before me with the tray. The dragon turned to me with glaring eyes, each breath he took shooting a bright swirl of fire into the darkness. The Avatar and the beautiful waterbender hopped off and stood next to Zuko. Zuko took hold of the Avatar's wrist and raised it, flames rising from the Avatar's hand, his arrows suddenly glowing and the wind whipping fiercely around him. The waterbender reached forward, caressed Zuko's face delicately, and when she stepped away his scar had disappeared. I tried to speak, but I couldn't force the words out of my burning throat. Zuko wrapped one arm around the waterbender's waist, pulling her close, and rested the other on the Avatar's shoulder. They all stared solemnly and intensely at me.

"Goodbye, Mai." Zuko said, and he dropped the golden tray of fruit tarts. The tray clashed in front of me and Zuko and the others jumped onto the dragon and flew away. Flames rose from the ground where they had stood. I looked down to see the golden tray lying in front of me, a single fruit tart sitting in the center. Suddenly the tray caught fire, burning loudly and brightly before dying just as quickly as it had come. The charred tray was covered with black rose petals.

I sat up straight in my bed, my hand flying to my heart as I tried to control my breathing. I snatched Zuko's letter and read it over and over until I was mentally bored and tired, a comfortable, painless, familiar, numb feeling. I put the letter away again, yawned, stretched, sighed, and lay back down. "Whatever," I whispered, wiping the sweat from my brow.


End file.
